Max Landis Explains the Death and Return of Superman and Why It Sucks

I actually remember when D.C. Comics decided to kill off Superman in the early ’90s. As I recall, he died fighting a big ass villain named Doomsday, a Hulk clone with rocks or something sticking out of his body. Basically they beat the crap out of each other, and Supes lost. Superman was, literally, beaten to death. At the time, I wasn’t much of a D.C. reader. Sure, I might have picked up the occasional cool Batman crossover or Lobo special, but I didn’t have regular D.C. titles reserved under my name at the local comic book shop. But a major comic book publisher killing off a major character like Superman piqued my interest; that was, of course, the point.

If you weren’t reading comics back when they killed off the big boy scout you might not know what happened, why, and how D.C. eventually resolved it. That’s where Max Landis, son of John, and the screenwriter of the superhero movie “Chronicle”, comes in. It’s basically a nerd rant, but incredibly entertaining, and features starring roles from Elijah Wood, Mandy Moore, and Simon Pegg. Not bad casting if you can get’em.

I actually stuck with D.C. post-death just to see where they went with the storyline, but lost interest pretty quickly. Heck, I’d even forgotten about Superman’s ridiculous death since. Thankfully, Landis hadn’t. The funniest part about this? Landis is only 26 years old, which would make him around 7 when they killed off Superman in 1992. It’s funny that it stuck with him for so long while I had forgotten. But man, it sure brings back memories. And yes, I still have a couple of copies of that Death of Superman issue, unopened and still in that black bag … somewhere.